University film student wins at The Moa Awards

When University of Auckland film graduate
Hash Perambalam won the Best Self-Funded Short Film award at
the Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards she got a selfie with
actor Sam Neill to celebrate.

Her film, Not Like
Her was made as part of a year-long Masters in Screen
Production thesis at the University of Auckland.

She
received the award at the Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards -
aka The Moas – held in Auckland last month.

“When they
announced that we won best self-funded short we all
screamed. I just gave a little speech and thanked everyone
and said if anyone wanted to give me a job I wrote, directed
and edited it. After the awards we got a selfie with Sam
Neill with both our Moas together. I don't usually do things
like that but I thought what the hell!”

The 14 minute
short film is centred on female body image from the
perspective of a rebellious teenage girl who is forced to
spend the day with her estranged mother when she is
suspended from school.

“I was thinking about women with
extreme body image issues having teenage daughters and
imagining what that might look like on a really bad day,”
Hash says.

“It’s a sad thought to me, if you hate
yourself and you hate how you look and then you have a
daughter staring back at you…and she looks like you.
People assume a mother’s love is so strong that it would
shake you out of that kind of mind-set…but what if it
can’t?”

Not Like Her was produced by Hash,
fellow graduate Lucy Stonex, and her Masters supervisor
Brendan Donovan.

Brendan says the award is even more
special as the category is open to all, not just
students.

“So Hash was up against both developing and
more established talent in the wider New Zealand film
industry. Many films are self-funded these days and so even
to be nominated was an achievement – to win is a
reflection of the quality of Hash’s work. It’s not just
a good student film, it’s a good film.”

Hash took a
year to create the film, from developing the idea, writing
the script, pre-production, filming, editing the film and
other post-production. Apart from a small investment by her
parents, she relied on favours, student discounts and fellow
students crewing the film. The majority of the cast and crew
worked on the film for free.

The 26-year-old from
Auckland’s North Shore has not had time to rest. She’s
already researching and writing another short film which she
hopes to get funded, the subject is still top-secret
though.

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